The idea of creating a heteronym happened in Paris during one of those wonderful walks I like to take around the city. In a world that is tending more and more towards (re)building borders, my first impulse was linked to the desire to break them down, to go beyond them, to become an explorer of my own writing, a joyous, adventurous explorer. I wanted to have a go at a writing style and literary genre that were totally new to me.
My heteronym was going to be that of a Parisian woman. So, I immediately looked for a name: Antonia Lassa, which has its origins in my maternal grandmother's name. She also needed an address: Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, in Paris of course. And then a profession. She would be an oenologist, an expert in understanding wine, in interpreting it and “guessing” what was to be found in each glass. This knowledge was going to relate closely with her way of understanding literature.
And just like that Antonia Lassa was created; as an author she is different from me, so we were able to start a up dialogue. While we were walking through Paris, I asked her why she had chosen to write crime fiction. "Because”, she replied, “crime fiction is real life, or rather, life itself, with all its light and darkness. And since the genre focuses more on the darkness, it helps us appreciate the light even better.”
Antonia also told me the novels she was going to write would deal with societal issues in a close, detailed way. She would also focus on aspects of identity and intimacy in a political and ethical way. What she wanted to create, like a good wine, were stories full of multiple tones, aromas, flavours but well blended... and that contained mysteries to solve with our five senses. She wants to invite readers to get involved in this literary sampling: to see, hear, smell, savour the mystery... and get close to it. Then suddenly, with a big smile, she added: “Speaking of touch… I just had an idea for my first book. It has to do with the skin…”.
This was how our first walk together ended. But we continue to talk on a regular basis. Recently she told me that her first novel, Skin Deep, was finished, and she started to tell me all about it:
The mystery with which the story begins is closely linked to the notions of place and space. An elderly millionairess who is staying at a suite in the most luxurious hotel in Biarritz, just like every summer, appears brutally murdered in a shabby apartment she had rented. What reasons had led her to the underbelly of that elegant city, as Inspector Canonne who’s in charge of the crime investigation calls it? The first clues point to some sort of sexual motive, although the victim is more than eighty years, and identifying her lover then becomes the police’s number one priority.
This search will be the start of a mystery that will bring with it other enigmas that will be marked by the contrast between a world of light: wealth, power, art, elegant neighbourhoods, and a world of shadows, in life’s underbelly, where crime seeks out spaces where it will go unpunished. There’s also a strong contrast in the different lines of enquiry because it’s not only the police in Biarritz who deal with the case. Singular private detective Albert Larten (another who breaks down borders...) will also carry out his own investigation from Paris, which will force him to travel not only through the streets of that city with the meticulousness of a wine taster (wine is one of his passions and he writes about this is a blog entitled The Wine Detective), but he will also have to roam through different cities in France: Bayonne, Bordeaux, Arcachon...
Larten doesn't mind having to travel, on the contrary, he enjoys the constant movement. Because this singular detective’s specialty is being in perpetual motion and it’s why he has set up his office in a mobile home.
Skin Deep's intrigue moves relentlessly not only through Paris and other cities in the southwest of France, but also through the delicate contours of the body, through the silhouettes of desire and the complicated territories of prejudice, ambition, violence.
At the beginning of the novel, we learn that the murderer has drawn some strange signs and symbols on the skin of his victim, an elderly woman murdered in a shabby apartment, in Biarritz. To solve the crime, the investigators will have to decipher the meaning of these markings and to do so they must observe her skin in detail. For it is in the skin, with all its extraordinary expressiveness, that the answers lie.
Skin Deep by Antonia Lassa (Trans Dr Jacky Collins (Corylus Books) Out Now.
When police arrest eccentric loner Émile Gassiat for the murder of a wealthy woman in a shabby seaside apartment in Biarritz, Inspector Canonne is certain he has put the killer behind bars. Now he just needs to prove it. But he hasn’t reckoned with the young man’s friends, who bring in lawyer-turned-investigator Larten to head for the desolate out-of-season south-west of France to dig deep into what really happened. Larten’s hunt for the truth takes him back to the bustle of Paris as he seeks to demonstrate that the man in prison is innocent, despite all the evidence – and to uncover the true killer behind a series of bizarre murders.
More information about the author and her books can be found on her website. You can also follow her on Twitter @letxenike
No comments:
Post a Comment